African Languages / M.A. (African Studies (Linguistics))

This thesis is a theoretical examination intended to lead the reader in a process of deeper and subjective understanding of culture through the medium of dance. The literature review avails the reader with meaningful foundation work and theories that are weaved together to propose a framework for observing dance movement with a more intercultural set of lenses. This thesis focuses particularly on three intersections: dance as a form of expression and nonverbal communication, dance as embodiment of culture, and dance as a reflection of cultural identity. A useful outcome of this study is a sequential set of tools suggested as a structure useful to gather and analyze data and to conduct further research.

Innovative technologies for construction project management are constantly emerging in the construction industry's global landscape, yet the rate of failed projects within the Nigerian construction sector due to poor coordination of construction tasks is on the rise. An unanswered question in the literature remains as to why construction project managers in Nigeria remain slow to adopt new technologies for improving decision-making processes and project success rates. The purpose of this qualitative single case study with embedded units was to understand the perceptions of construction project managers in Nigeria regarding their barriers to technology adoption. This study was framed by 2 conceptual models: Usman and Said's model of factors contributing to information and communication technology adoption in Nigerian construction firms and Waziri, Mustapha, and Idris' model of factors influencing IT adoption in Nigerian construction organizations. Semistructured interviews involving 10 participants, reflective field notes, and archival data provided information regarding the barriers to technology adoption experience of construction project managers in Nigeria. Thematic analysis of the textual data and synthesis produced 5 conceptual categories for 14 identifiable themes from the study. The conceptual categories were (a) adoption of technology, (b) culture, (c) organizational performance, (d) innovative technology, and (e) interorganizational collaborations. The findings from this study may serve as a catalyst for positive social change by challenging existing technology-avoidance behavior in the Nigerian construction industry, and opening new opportunities for improved project delivery in the Nigerian national economy.

Prior studies have revealed that recent Asian and Hispanic immigrant entrepreneurs have made significant contributions to social change in the United States. Although African immigrant entrepreneurs have made such contributions, few studies exist about them, and there is limited knowledge about this business community. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify the barriers of growth in Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrant-owned firms in the Washington, DC area who were in business for a minimum of 3 years and represented various trade lines and geographical locations. The enhanced integrated model of ethnic business development, which proposes growth strategies by analyzing the interaction of opportunity structures, ethnic resources, and entrepreneurial and management skills, was used as the conceptual framework to guide this study. Semistructured interview data were gathered from the business owners and then analyzed by employing a pattern matching technique. The data analysis revealed the themes of management deficiencies and the lack of organizational support system as the main growth barriers of the firms studied. These findings suggested the improvement of management skills and the creation of an organizational support system. This effort demands a collaboration of public, private, and community organizations. The results of this study may have positive social change implications to local economies by facilitating the growth of immigrant-owned businesses and enhancing their job and income-creating potential.

Little research has focused on developing female African American leaders. A mixed methods study examined the influence of conservation of resources (COR) and locus of control (LOC) on the self-efficacy (SE) of 26 female African American leaders. It also explored the role of mentoring and spirituality in leadership development for a subset of 5 participants. Data were obtained using a demographic questionnaire, the General SE Scale, the COR Evaluation Gain scale, and the LOC Assessment, along with transcribed responses to mentoring and spirituality interview questions. Pearson correlations run between age, education, and income, as well as COR, LOC, and SE scores uncovered an inverse relationship between education and LOC and no other significant associations. A multiple regression analysis determined that COR and LOC did not predict SE among the participants. A qualitative analysis of the coded interview responses by a subset of 5 participants to 10 questions on mentoring and spirituality yielded 5 thematic clusters: (a) mentor link: expertise for guiding mentoring relationship or being a positive role model, (b) mentor value: commitment to personal or professional development, (c) mentor characteristics: qualities of being a good mentor, (d) mentor outcomes: expertise in mentoring and supporting an individual in development, and (e) workplace spirituality: individual desire to live spiritual values in the workplace. The results will foster positive social change by identifying ways to promote the development of female African American leaders.

Despite the multitude of existing studies of leadership and organizational outcome, there are few empirical studies of these phenomena in Africa. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship between Nigerian local government administrative leadership and organizational outcome and between perceived leadership effectiveness and transformational leadership factors, based on Bass's full range leadership theory (FRLT). Data were collected through the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaires administered to a randomly selected sample of 240 department heads in 30 local governments in Osun State, Nigeria. Regression result shows a statistically significant correlation between the local public administrators' leadership practices and organizational outcome (p < 0.05), but the model only accounted for 10.5% of variance in organizational outcome, suggesting other influential factors on the local government outcome other than leadership. Regression results also showed a significant relationship between local public administrators' leadership effectiveness and transformational leadership factors (p < 0.05). The model accounted for 28% of the variance in leadership effectiveness, suggesting other factors affecting the public administrators' leadership effectiveness. The implications for positive social change include the opportunity to move the Nigerian local administrators' leadership practices towards more effective and ethical leadership as explained by the spectrum of FRLT, through training and transformational leadership development programs. In turn, transformational leadership and organizational practices may discourage corruption and help build a sustainable local government institution that is responsive and accountable to the Nigerian public.

Malaria is one of the leading causes of death for children and women in Sierra Leone. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and understand the lived experiences of women from the rural areas of Sierra Leone regarding malaria. A purposive sample of Krio women from the western rural area, aged 21-55 years, spoke English, and had taken care of someone with malaria described their perceptions and lived experiences with the disease in face-to-face interviews. The research questions were based on the health belief model and focused on knowledge, beliefs, and perceptions about malaria prevention and treatment. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify themes through coding. The findings indicated that (a) lack of doctors, medicines, and medical supplies at government clinics discourages malaria victims from visiting those clinics; (b) the use of traditional herbs is prevalent because of their effectiveness, affordability, easy access, and lack of side effects; (c) women were not aware of recommended comprehensive malaria control measures, which include the continuous use of durable insecticide nets, residual spraying, case management, and artemisinin-based therapy. The results also show that (a) pregnant women should not take prescribed medications to prevent or treat malaria because they harm the fetus, and (b) traditional herbs may be taken with Western medicines to treat severe malaria. Recommendations include: that the government evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of its current malaria programs in local clinics, and that future studies be undertaken to identify antimalarial properties in commonly accepted local herbs. Changes in policies and practices relating to the prevention and treatment of malaria will serve as building blocks for positive social change to reduce the malaria incidence rate in Sierra Leone.

From 1991 to 2002, the Sierra Leone government and the Revolutionary United Front waged war against each other, subjecting Sierra Leone to a civil war. This war devastated the nation and resulted in many human casualties. Although many researchers have investigated the role of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in counterinsurgency and conflict resolution, few studies have been conducted on the specific role of strategic processing tools used by ECOWAS during the Sierra Leone war to sustain a durable peace resolution in the country. Using Galula's conceptualization of counterinsurgency and conflict resolution as a guide, the purpose of this qualitative, I used an explanatory case study to determine the elements that made strategic processing tools effective. Data were collected through open ended interviews with 10 Sierra Leoneans that experienced the conflict, publicly available documents, and mass media reports related to the Sierra Leone civil war. All data were manually coded and then subjected to constant comparative analytic procedures. The key finding of this study was that conflict resolution was successful because intervention by ECOWAS was largely viewed by Sierra Leoneans favorably and legitimate. The ECOWAS use of force was vital for the peace process. However, there were occurrences of human rights violations that were not fully resolved through the procedural mechanisms in place at the time. The positive social change implications stemming from this study includes recommendations to ECOWAS to establish a disciplinary unit to oversee violations of international humanitarian law and other serious abuses by ECOWAS troops. These actions may advance peace among religions, political parties, and ethnic groups in the region.

This study is set to explore the theory of speech acts with special reference to Zulu. This is done with the motive of discovering the applicability of this theory to the utterances that are issued by the speakers of this language. Particular attention is given to the performatives as a special kind of speech act. Their examination reveals that in Zulu, there are acts, which could be performed by saying something. We distinguish between explicit and inexplicit performatives. Explicit performatives contain a verb in their main clause which names the act that is performed when a performative is issued. The inexplicit performative on the other hand does not contain this verb. Acts that are restrained as far as the explicit performative is concerned, would rather be expressed by means of the inexplicit performative. Utterances such as those that express commands, customarily make use of the imperative, which is an inexplicit performative. A closer examination of how performatives are realised in Zulu, reveals that in order for the performatives to be understood as intended by the speaker, the illocutionary force, of what the speaker intends or means by the issuance of the utterance in question, comes to the surface. It is the illocutionary force which connote that an utterance is a request, a command, a warning, etc. Performatives can also be double-natured in function. One performative could be a request which is intended as an order. In this case it is the responsibility of the addressee to use contextual information in order to determine that which is the speaker's intention. In this investigation, what has surfaced as well, is that one speech act could be expressed in various different ways. For instance, a request, could be expressed by the use of a performative, an imperative, a question and a statement. Another factor which we came across in this study, and which has a significant bearing on the performative, is that they should comply with the conditions of felicity, if they are to be successful and understood as intended by the addressee. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

Ce mémoire explore le rôle du conte dans l’enseignement de la langue française. L’étude se focalise sur les aspects culturels, socio-éducatifs et didactique des contes en se focalisant sur le conte Africain d’expression française. Pour ce faire, l’étude a d’abord revu des articles et ouvrages pertinents à la littérature africaine d’expression orale y compris le conte avant d’explorer la place du conte dans la littérature africaine d’expression française. Cette revue de la littérature montre différentes approches utilisées par les écrivains pour inclure les contes dans la littérature. Le recueil de contes et l’intertextualité sont les formes les plus présentes dans cette étude car étant les plus utilisées par les écrivains de contes africains. Sur le plan pédagogique et didactique, cette étude s’est basée sur la méthode communicative d’enseignement de la langue (CLT) pour proposer des cas pratiques d’enseignement/apprentissage de deux contes africains (La Cuillère Sale et Le Roi et Ses Trois Enfants) et un conte français (Le Petit Prince, Chapitre xv). Ces leçons, destinées aux élèves des Collèges D’enseignement Moyen des pays Francophone et aux élèves/étudiants de niveau intermédiaire en français aux États-Unis, constitue un prétexte pour explorer la littéraire et la cultures africaine et françaises à travers des exercices communicatifs. L’étude a montré que le conte est sous exploite dans l’enseignement du français à travers le monde alors qu’il regorge d’aspects socio-éducatifs et culturels bénéfiques aux apprenants. L’étude suggère aussi une formation préalable des enseignants sur la littéraire et l’histoire africaine avant de s’engager sur l’enseignement du conte africain en particulier pour en tirer le meilleur et éviter interprétations inexactes ou de renforcer certains stéréotypes.